Recently, we've been in contact with a customer from Taiwan who is interested in SK5, which is the cold-rolled steel strip of the Chinese standard T8 tool steel. We offered both Japanese-imported steel strips and high-precision SK85 cold-rolled steel strips produced by Baosteel, with some price differences, but the final application depends on the customer's choice. When we first engaged with this customer, the product requirements were as follows. Normally, SK85 cold-rolled steel strips are used in tools or blades, but we have limited exposure to products with flanges similar to buttons.
After discussions with relevant technical personnel and production managers and conducting research, it was determined that it was feasible but required further testing.
About a month after initial discussions with the customer, we began the sampling process. Initially, we estimated a supply of about one ton of trial steel strip, for five attempts at spheroidizing annealing. The rate of reduction exceeded 80%, compared to the general cold rolling process. We made targeted adjustments to the process. Production took about a month, resulting in approximately 0.8 tons of finished product delivered to the customer. Upon receipt, the customer promptly used the samples to produce prototypes and deliver them to the end-user, which passed the qualification test.
With the advancement of Chinese manufacturing and the development of industrial clusters, the demand for cold-rolled steel strips is expected to increase. As for many imported materials like SK5 and SAE1045 cold-rolled steel strips, with the improvement of domestic steelmaking technology and rolling processes, they can almost entirely replace imported steel strips unless specific requirements are stipulated by customers. Of course, when procuring, attention should be paid to suppliers. For precision cold-rolled steel strips, the technical expertise and after-sales service of the supplier are critical.
Baoshan District,
Shanghai, China.
